Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Your dog’s brain doesn’t care about your face

Comparing brain scans of people and pups shows that faces hold no special meaning to the brains of dogs, a new study suggests.

Neuroscience

Tiny, magnetically controlled robots coax nerve cells to grow connections

Research using microrobots and nerve cells from rats could point to new treatments for people with nerve injuries.

Neuroscience

A mother mouse’s gut microbes help wire her pup’s brain

The pups of mice lacking gut microbes, and the compounds they make, have altered nerve cells in part of the brain and a lowered sensitivity to touch.

Neuroscience

Newly discovered cells in mice can sense four of the five tastes

Some cells in mice can sense bitter, sweet, sour and umami. Without the cells, some flavor signals don’t get to the ultimate tastemaker — the brain.

Neuroscience

New guidance on brain death could ease debate over when life ends

Brain death can be a tricky concept. Clarity from an international group of doctors may help identify when the brain has stopped working for good.

Neuroscience

Boosting a liver protein may mimic the brain benefits of exercise

Finding that liver-made proteins influence the brain may advance the quest for an “exercise pill” that can deliver the benefits of physical activity.

Health & Medicine

Strokes and mental state changes hint at how COVID-19 harms the brain

In a group of people severely ill from the coronavirus, strokes, psychosis, depression and other brain-related changes come as complications.

Neuroscience

How to make a mouse smell a smell that doesn’t actually exist

The ability to create a perception might lead to a deeper understanding of how the brain makes sense of the world.

Neuroscience

The way the coronavirus messes with smell hints at how it affects the brain

Conflicting reports offer little clarity about whether COVID-19 targets the brain.

Neuroscience

A new 3-D map illuminates the ‘little brain’ within the heart

Microscopy and genetic studies yield a comprehensive map of the nerve cells found in the heart of a rat.

Neuroscience

How coronavirus stress may scramble our brains

The pandemic has made clear thinking a real struggle. But researchers say knowing how stress affects the brain can help people cope.

Neuroscience

Blind people can ‘see’ letters traced directly onto their brains

Arrays of electrodes can trace shapes onto people’s brains, creating bursts of light that people can “see.”